Category: info1
Travis Kalanick is trying to buy Pony.ai — and Uber might help
Uber founder Travis Kalanick is looking for ways to buy the U.S. arm of Chinese autonomous vehicle company Pony.ai, according to The New York Times. Kalanick is reportedly working with investors to finance an acquisition, and Uber may even help make the transaction happen, the Times reports. Pony.ai went public last year and had a…
Indian drone startup Raphe mPhibr raises $100M as military UAV demand soars
Indian drone startup Raphe mPhibr has raised $100 million in an all-equity Series B round led by General Catalyst, as the startup aims to boost its R&D and local production capabilities amid growing demand for drones in battlefields and for border surveillance. Drones are becoming increasingly ubiquitous in global military operations. In recent and ongoing…
Meta’s recruiting blitz claims three OpenAI researchers
In the fight for top AI talent, Meta just reportedly snagged a win, poaching three OpenAI researchers despite rival Sam Altman’s public mockery of Mark Zuckerberg’s lavish hiring tactics. The latest victory in Zuckerberg’s widely-reported recruiting blitz: Lucas Beyer, Alexander Kolesnikov, and Xiaohua Zhai – who established OpenAI’s Zurich office – have joined Meta’s superintelligence…
Sam Altman comes out swinging at The New York Times
From the moment OpenAI CEO Sam Altman stepped onstage, it was clear this was not going to be a normal interview. Altman and his chief operating officer, Brad Lightcap, stood awkwardly toward the back of the stage at a jam-packed San Francisco venue that typically hosts jazz concerts. Hundreds of people filled steep theatre-style seating…
Kalshi closes $185M round as rival Polymarket reportedly seeks $200M
Kalshi just raised a $185 million round, led by crypto-focused VC firm Paradigm, bringing the company’s valuation to $2 billion post-money, representatives from Paradigm and Kalshi confirmed to TechCrunch. “Prediction markets remind me of crypto 15 years ago: a new asset class on a path to trillions,” Matt Huang, co-founder and managing partner at Paradigm,…
India’s GoKwik raised a small $13M round for a hefty leap in valuation
GoKwik, an Indian startup that offers a suite of integrated e-commerce products, has raised a small round of $13 million, which it calls a “growth” round, that has boosted its valuation to $450 million pre-money. While the new funding round, led by RTP Global, is 63% smaller than its Series B of $35 million, announced…
How Synthflow AI is cutting through the noise in a loud AI voice category
The conversational AI market has exploded since ChatGPT was released in November 2022 and is predicted to grow into a nearly $50 billion global industry by 2031, according to MarketsAndMarkets. Synthflow AI is just one of many companies building in this space that hopes to stand out from the pack because of its focus on…
Facebook Group admins complain of mass bans; Meta says it’s fixing the problem
After a wave of mass bans impacting Instagram and Facebook users alike, Meta users are now complaining that Facebook Groups are also being impacted by mass suspensions. According to individual complaints and organized efforts on sites like Reddit to share information, the bans have impacted thousands of groups both in the U.S. and abroad, and…
iPhone customers upset by Apple Wallet ad pushing ‘F1’ movie
Apple customers aren’t thrilled they’re getting an ad from the Apple Wallet app promoting the tech giant’s Original Film, “F1 the Movie.” Across social media, iPhone owners are complaining that their Wallet app sent out a push notification offering a $10 discount at Fandango for anyone buying two or more tickets to the film. The…
Court filings reveal OpenAI and io’s early work on an AI device
Legal filings submitted earlier this month from lawyers representing OpenAI and Jony Ive’s io reveal new details about the companies’ efforts to build a mass-market AI hardware device. The filings are part of a trademark dispute lawsuit filed this month by iyO, a Google-backed hardware startup developing custom-molded earpieces that connect to other devices. Over…
